DNA Is Enough To File Indictments, Court Says

Prosecutors now need no more than a suspect's DNA to file an indictment in New York City, following a state court decision that will allow prosecutors to get around statutes of limitations for some crimes.

A mid-level appellate court has ruled that prosecutors under District Attorney Morgenthau did not need to know the identity of a rape suspect in order to indict him, so long as they possessed a DNA sample.

In the case before the court, police were able to eventually link a DNA sample that had been charged in an indictment to man named David Martinez who eventually pleaded guilty to rape. He argued on appeal that he had a Constitutional right to be identified by name — and not just by his genetic markers — in any indictment charging him with a crime. The court rejected that argument.